King Ludwig II of Bavaria has built some of the most beautiful castles in the world during his lifetime. In one of my previous posts, I wrote about Linderhof castle which was the only one Kind Ludwig II lived to see completed. Though the castle is not complete, Neushwanstein stands out as the best of all the castles the king made.
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| Neuschwanstein Castle |
Clearly it looks as though it is taken from a fairy tale. In fact, the Disneyland's sleeping beauty castle is a result of this inspirational structure. I went here during the summer of 2013 and was probably the best time to visit. Surrounded by German and Austrian Alps with Alpsee and Schwansee in the backdrop, you would give a second thought to even blinking your eyes for it will steal the momentary view.
I went with a group called International-Friends Munich which was a group of about 2,000 people (now 15,000) from all different countries around the world. We started off from Munich central station at about 9 in the morning and before noon we reached the town of Fussen from where Neuschwanstein is just 3 km away. The train ride is beautiful but crowded at the time and we had to stand inside the second class coach during the entire journey. There is a dedicated bus service from Fussen every 15-20 minutes which is enough to explore a bit around this town which has amazing pizzas and ice cream shops. Till that time I was still a vegetarian person and not an admirer of Bavarian food which was mostly meat.
The bus drops you at the foothill of the alps in a village called Hohenschwangau from where you have to climb uphill either by foot or there are horse wagons. Hohenschwangau castle is the primary attraction of this village which used to be the childhood residence of the King.
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| Hohenschwangau castle as viewed from Neuschwanstein Castle with Alpsee in the backdrop. |
The way by foot is hardly exhausting, in fact it is pleasant to walk around the lush green trees. Once you reach near the castle, beer gardens, souvenir shops and gelato ice cream shops welcome you. The castle does not look beautiful from up close here. There is a bridge behind this castle where you can view the castle and believe me, I would have preferred not to enter the bridge looking at the number of people who occupied it. It is not one of those steel bridges which you see in cities but a weaker one and every inch of it was occupied by humans who were hungry for extended view of the castle and the landscape around it. Even I became that hungry being who refused to leave the bridge easily because it is a rare opportunity to be able to see something this pleasing to your eyes.
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| View of Schwansee from Neushwanstein Castle |
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| View of Alpsee from the bridge |
From the other end of the bridge, one can hike to the top of the mountain from where you can come down using a cable car. Given that we did not come with a purpose to hike, we chose to take the easier way to go back. I was not interested to see the inside of the castle during this trip. So I have left that for sometime in future when I visit here again.
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| Alpsee |
After coming down from the Neuschwanstein hill, we went to relax at Alpsee where some people did swimming, others played with frisbee disc and people like us relaxed in the warm sun talking to each other about various things. Apart from this castle, this small village serves as an ideal spot to hike around in the nearby hills or do paragliding.
Neuschwanstein is a must go for people who visit Bavaria. It is hardly 2 hours from Munich and one of the best weekend getaways for people living nearby.
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